Vehicles include an internal combustion engine that generates drive torque. More specifically, the engine draws in air and mixes the air with fuel to form a combustion mixture. The combustion mixture is compressed within cylinders and is combusted to drive pistons that are slidably disposed within the cylinders. The pistons rotatably drive a crankshaft that transfers drive torque to a transmission and wheels. When the engine misfires, the combustion mixture of a cylinder combusts at the wrong time and may cause engine vibration and driveline oscillation.
Engine control systems sometimes include misfire detection systems that determine when the engine misfires. The engine control system can adjust engine operation to reduce engine misfire, thereby improving engine performance and vehicle drivability. Some road conditions can cause the engine control system to incorrectly register a misfire event when one has not actually occurred. For example, rough roads can induce feedback torque on the wheels that can affect rotation of the crankshaft. Abnormal crankshaft rotation is one characteristic of an engine misfire event.
Some misfire detection systems identify misfire events based on changes in engine speed with respect to a reference. The reference represents expected changes in speed of a normal engine operating in similar conditions and may be obtained experimentally by running a vehicle at different operating conditions without misfire. When misfire occurs, the drop in engine torque produces a corresponding drop in engine speed. This speed change is sometimes greater than changes in a reference.
Rough roads also produce changes in engine speed that are similar in magnitude to those generated by engine misfire events. This poses a problem for engine misfire detection systems that rely on changes in engine speed to detect engine misfire events. To prevent the systems from generating false misfire events due to rough roads, the misfire detection system may be disabled when rough roads are detected. Of course, this assumes that a reliable rough road detection system is available.
In another approach, anti-lock braking systems (ABS) are used to detect rough road. More specifically, the ABS generates a rough road signal when a rough road is present. This signal from the ABS module disables the misfire detection system when the rough road signal is asserted.